SDG Engagement High Yield Credit Report

Aaron Hay, Lead Engager

Fraser Lundie, CFA, Head of Credit

Mitch Reznick, CFA, Head of Research and Sustainable Fixed Income

27 April 2021| Recent thinking

Seeking twin objectives of strong financial performance and positive social and environmental impacts that contribute to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we launched SDG Engagement High Yield Credit in October 2019.

Building the foundation and hitting our stride: a promising, productive inaugural engagement year

When we set out on our SDG impact journey, we understood that we were pioneering something different. There are few, if any, other global high-yield strategies that aim to tackle our co-linear objectives through a combination of investing expertise, SDG impact potential and an intensive annual engagement strategy.

In 2020, despite the backdrop of the global coronavirus pandemic, we achieved our overarching goal of engaging every company in our portfolio. As of year-end, 353 engagement actions were carried out at 114 companies. Our work should enable deeper, more open dialogue and evidence-based discussion of issues with management teams and boards in 2021 and beyond.

Our annual report explores how our SDG impact investing process has evolved one year in, presents our performance, examines the topics we engaged on last year as well as the most intensely engaged SDGs, and focuses on SDG impact in the metals and telecommunications sectors.

SDG Engagement High Yield Credit: 2020 Annual Report